Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 4, 2013 - 9:56am

What is it? A thread where anyone can ask for a writing prompt.

Who can do it? Anyone. I just said that. Try reading for once. 

How do I do it? Ask your mother. Oh, you mean the prompt; I thought you meant, nevermind. Well, you post something below that says prompt me! or maybe something less demanding and if you want a specific genre or word count please let someone know. Then you wait, yes wait. Then, magically some might say, a prompt will be delivered unto you. 

Who can provide the random prompt? Anyone. Literally anyone. The first person who sees the post wanting a prompt will provide the prompt .

Got it? 

Give it a try. 

 

 

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 4, 2013 - 11:28pm

I like this. Why hasn't anyone commented on this?

I'll probably ask for a prompt after I'm doing writing my sci-fi story for the teleport us contest.

.'s picture
. January 4, 2013 - 11:35pm


Writers are lazy.  

We need deadlines and word counts. A good kick in the ass to get us motivated.

Dave's picture
Dave from a city near you is reading constantly January 5, 2013 - 1:18am

I like the profile pic Matt, really accentuates your great hair.

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 5, 2013 - 5:27am

@Court, true dat! 

@Dakota, well if someone wants a word count or deadline, they just say: "Prompt me! Also provide word count and deadline. Sci-Fi genre. Or something. Hell, if it's flash they can even post in the thread. 

@Dave, thank ya sir. I had it laying around. At some point I need honest to god artist pictures for a M.L. Hall website/facebook. I got no fucking clue what I'm doing though

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 5, 2013 - 5:57am

You know, Dave's right. I commented on your photo, what, a few days ago? I didn't even notice how goddamn fabulous your hair looks.

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 5, 2013 - 6:07am

Ha! The hair again. I'm going to feel like shit if I finally go bald. Graying at the temples already. 

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 5, 2013 - 6:09am

You're letting us all down, Matt. Your hair is the only thing keeping this site together. Don't you know we have each post tied together with strands we stole from your hairbrush? Gray isn't gonna fucking cut it.

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 5, 2013 - 6:15am

Gray hair adds seasoning to a man, or so I've been told. Fuck being bald though, my strands of excellence will not die! 

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 5, 2013 - 7:44am

"Strands of excellence" is a fucking fantastic way to refer to hair.

underpurplemoon's picture
underpurplemoon from PDX January 5, 2013 - 11:19am

Poke!

.'s picture
. January 5, 2013 - 11:26am


I know what it is. We're not challenging anyone, just our selves. 

Oh well, I'll bite.

PROMPT ME!

100 words. 

 

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 5, 2013 - 11:28am

Prompt: The bath-water has gone cold. 

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like January 5, 2013 - 9:51pm

It looks like a crew-cut to me. Congrats on not having hipster-hair, I guess.

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 5, 2013 - 10:01pm

Prompt me! 4,000 words. Literary fiction, no sci-fi or fantasy.

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like January 5, 2013 - 10:21pm

Identical twins: one runs a bowling alley, the other bowls.

Jonathan Riley's picture
Jonathan Riley from Memphis, Tennessee is reading Flashover by Gordon Highland January 5, 2013 - 10:25pm

@J.Y. love the prompt

@Courtney, you can totally rock that prompt!

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest January 5, 2013 - 10:42pm

Prompt me. Gimme a word count and deadline. Noir/pulp genre. No detective stories though. I don't do detective.

 

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 5:07am

Noir. Let's do a classic, a lesbian pickup artist detective! Kidding

EDIT! 

Prompt: A shrink has a messiah complex for his patient. Up to 4000 words, due on the 18th. 

Make it sing! 

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 6, 2013 - 6:29am

That doesn't sound terrible, actually. I'm assuming my due date is a week from today? (I don't think I'll be workshopping this month, but I'll attach it here or something.)

GaryP's picture
GaryP from Denver is reading a bit of this and that January 6, 2013 - 6:48am

Science fiction please (for the upcoming LR sci fi thingy). 

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 7:25am

Prompt:

I always wanted to see Homer's Odyssey in space. I think it could be brilliant. Earth-shattering! You could even pick one story out of it, if you like, but the overall arc would be great. Have at it. Up to 5000 words, you have a 2 weeks starting now. 

GaryP's picture
GaryP from Denver is reading a bit of this and that January 6, 2013 - 8:24am

Yoinks.

Have you read Dan Simmons's Ilium/Olympos books? It's a far-future humanity, some of which have been engineered into Greek gods and are playing out the Iliad. 

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 8:29am

I was just thinking of a guy getting home after some space war. I have not read it. Did you want me to give you something else? 

GaryP's picture
GaryP from Denver is reading a bit of this and that January 6, 2013 - 8:35am

No, I'll give it a shot. Maybe I'll center on Penelope.

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 8:36am

Love it. Run with it. Sounds like it's going to bad ass. I look forward to seeing. 

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. January 6, 2013 - 9:16am

I want someone to write the story I want to read:

PROMPT:  A man kidnaps and uses pschology to induce stockholm syndrome in the woman he's obsessed with.

Word count: 3-5000

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest January 6, 2013 - 10:33am

^ I may actually be able to pull that off, and might be able to include Matt's original prompt. I'm in. 

Liana's picture
Liana from Romania and Texas is reading Naked Lunch January 6, 2013 - 10:57am

Let's try posting a video. Ulysses (in space) cartoon from the 80s. And there was Ulysses gum too.

 

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like January 6, 2013 - 12:41pm

Prompt: people are shit. Creative non-fiction, 3 word maximum, due this morning.

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 6, 2013 - 1:16pm

I thought you wrote that, Howie. Did I dream that? Am I fucking psychic for prompts? Lamest superpower ever.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. January 6, 2013 - 1:17pm

I wrote a scene where the guy kidnaps the girl, but I never wrote any more on it (and the synopsis had that prompt in it).  I know I'll never write it, but I really want to read it.  

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest January 6, 2013 - 1:22pm

I've already started it. Haven't gotten too far into it, but I have a few characters fairly fleshed out, an idea of how I can connect Matt's prompt and Stockholm Syndrome. But, and I did think about this for awhile, I'm writing this in 3rd person, which I've found in the past that I'm not exactly great at. I just don't feel like 1st person will work for the story I'm coming up with. I'm forseeing this one pushing the 5k word mark. Possibly more.

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 6, 2013 - 1:22pm

Oh. Well, you destroyed my idea of running a business where I predict people's WAR prompts for cash.

That scene was good, though. And that does sound interesting.

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 1:35pm

This thread is working like gangbusters and the great part is you're all writing for yourselves. I'm excited to see where all these go.

Courtney's picture
Courtney from the Midwest is reading Monkey: A Journey to the West and a thousand college textbooks January 6, 2013 - 1:48pm

Oh, by the way, I demanded a 4,000 word count because I'm fucking tired of having dozens of stories with 2,500 words. I need some variation.

Matt, why the fuck aren't you being prompted? It's your thread!

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 1:58pm

I have to get beat in WAR first. I think it'll be this round. I've basically just stared at my story all day. I am shocked to have made it this far. Honestly shocked.

 

When I ask for a prompt, it'll be for a novel. No lie. A novel with a deadline and I will finish it.

EDIT: I may even put it on google docs and make it open source so you guys can track my progress. 

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 6, 2013 - 1:52pm

Here's some hold music while you wait. 

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz January 7, 2013 - 3:01am

teleprompter me

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner January 7, 2013 - 5:16am

@Mr. Pane: Prompt: Collect three random sentences from magazines, newspaper articles, stories, etc. Unify them into one story.

.'s picture
. January 7, 2013 - 6:56am

I like. 

Jimothy Scott's picture
Jimothy Scott from Canada is reading The wise mans fear January 21, 2013 - 12:36pm

prompt me

Carly Berg's picture
Carly Berg from USA is reading Story Prompts That Work by Carly Berg is now available at Amazon January 21, 2013 - 12:46pm

Write an experimental flash story that shows the same thing happening three different times and three different ways. For example,a date, asking for a promotion, handling a bully. Don't explain, just make scene breaks between each one.

That's a prompt, isn't it? Or do you want a different one?

Jimothy Scott's picture
Jimothy Scott from Canada is reading The wise mans fear January 21, 2013 - 12:49pm

Thats neat. I'll give it a go

Carly Berg's picture
Carly Berg from USA is reading Story Prompts That Work by Carly Berg is now available at Amazon January 21, 2013 - 12:50pm

Cool. :)

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts January 21, 2013 - 4:21pm

I guess I'll take one. I'm not doing genre stuff for a while.

Carly Berg's picture
Carly Berg from USA is reading Story Prompts That Work by Carly Berg is now available at Amazon January 21, 2013 - 8:20pm

Okay, how about a weird Easter tale for you?

Carly Berg's picture
Carly Berg from USA is reading Story Prompts That Work by Carly Berg is now available at Amazon January 22, 2013 - 3:09am

Do you want a different one, Renfield?

So, how do you know if the person wants to use your prompt or is still waiting for a prompt that clicks with them? Or is that not the way the thread works?

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts January 22, 2013 - 7:23am

I think once you issue the prompts it's up to them to either succeed or fail no matter the prompt. In this case, though, I do already have an Easter/sex story.

Carly Berg's picture
Carly Berg from USA is reading Story Prompts That Work by Carly Berg is now available at Amazon January 22, 2013 - 7:35am

Okay, then, how about a guy whose wife starts growing, and keeps growing, to like nine feet tall and eight hundred pounds. See how he likes that! :)

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts January 22, 2013 - 7:36am

I'll give that a try.